Achnaha

This tiny village, with its collection of neat, white houses, sits in a bowl in the centre of the great Ardnamurchan volcano, surrounded by the eroded wall of the Great Eucrite. Its name is Gallic, ach being a field and ath being a ford, so Acha-na-h-atha means 'the field of the ford'. The ford referred to is, presumably, across the burn called Allt Uamha na Muice which runs to the west of the village, becoming, further down its course, the Allt Sanna, the small river which runs into the sea at Sanna.
For a place with a permanent population of ten, Achnaha is a remarkably busy little village. Its land is divided between several crofts whose main business is sheep, though one croft, Hillview, also keeps pigs as well as offering Bed & Breakfast and a caravan to let. In addition, there are three home-based businesses. A relative newcomer, occupying the agricultural shed to the left of the photo, is Stewart Pote's Over the Garden Wall, which stocks a wide variety of garden items. Geosec Slides, run by Rob Gill, is a highly specialist business preparing microscope thin sections from rock samples. Finally, Nigel and Jenny Chapman run MacAvon Media Productions, which offers a range of services related to computing, from website design to text books on a range of subjects including HTML, graphics and Photoshop, as well as some very beautiful miniature watercolours. All three demonstrate how modern communications have made it possible to run efficient and successful small businesses from a beautiful location far from today's centres of population.

Global warming reached us today in the form of a sudden rise in temperature. At lunchtime this afternoon, the thermometer stood at 13.5C. Hardly a breath of wind disturbed Kilchoan Bay, and the area was bathed in bright sunshine.

View of Kilchoan Bay from the road running down into the village,

with Kilchoan House Hotel on the right.